As a Spanish teacher and mother raising bilingual children, I am always searching for resources to support my children and students’ language abilities.  I was absolutely thrilled to be given the chance to review Whistlefritz’s newly released Educator’s Collection!  This comprehensive collection includes the Spanish for Kids DVD series, music CDs, a Spanish Immersion matching card game, and an extensive book that contains original Spanish lesson plans for kids and innovative activity pages.  The collection is indispensable for providing children and students with educational activities to further their knowledge and understanding of Spanish.

My children absolutely loved the captivating and enchanting DVDs!  These award-winning episodes are well made and fascinated my children!  They are their favorite DVDs, and my boys want to watch them repeatedly.  The immersion method, which is essential for the learning of a new language, is used.  I especially appreciate the consistent use of comprehensible input throughout the video.  The Spanish is clear and easy to understand, with the repetition of new words and phrases guaranteeing that children will learn while watching.  The songs in the videos encourage the children to participate and sing along, but for my boys the fun and loveable mouse Fritzi was the star of the show.

We very much enjoyed the up-beat songs on the CDs, which include some traditional Latin tunes as well as some new songs.  The award-winning singer and songwriter Jorge Anaya create music that is easy to learn and fun for singing and dancing along with.  A songbook is included which contains the lyrics and translation for the songs in the DVDs and on the CDs.  Music is one my family’s favorite ways to learn Spanish, and the Whistlefritz CDs are our favorites!

The memory matching cards game was great fun for the whole family!  My boys loved the cleverly illustrated action cards, and my five year old took great pride in reading the verbs under each drawing.  Playing together was a fun way to learn and review new words all while interacting in Spanish.

By far my favorite part of the educator’s collection is the compilation of Spanish lesson plans.  The activity-based curriculum will be invaluable for teaching both my sons and my students.  The content-based units and cross-curricular lesson plans provide excellent ideas for furthering the understanding and speaking abilities of the students in my classes.  I especially love the materials and worksheets that can be copied and used in the classroom and at home.

I highly recommend Whistlefritz’s Educator’s Collection for parents and teachers who are committed to raising bilingual children.  This multi-media collection provides interactive, hands-on language-learning activities, video, and music that will significantly enhance the learning in the classroom and in the home.

The Giveaway!

We are giving away one complete educator’s collection to one winner — a value of $175! All you have to do is visit the Whistlefritz website and tell us how you would be using the Educator’s Spanish Collection. Then enter the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In December I got an email from Deepa Fernandes, early childhood development correspondent for 89.3 KPCC Public Radio in Southern California. She wanted to interview me and visit Camila’s elementary school because she was working on a series on bilingual education. The 3-part series finally airs this week and I got to listen to the first one live this morning. You can listen to it here or below.

The series called “Bilingual Learning: The science, options and dilemma of dual language education” started off today by showcasing the many dual language immersion early education and elementary options available for children in the Los Angeles area. California now has over 300 schools that offer this program, with Los Angeles being the county with the most offerings starting in kindergarten. What makes me happy is to know that these programs are increasing exponentially and there are just so many more options available at every level than we had even four years ago when we started exploring bilingual education on SpanglishBaby.

KPCC has also  put together a very comprehensive and impressive site at projects.scpr.org/bilinguallearning. I urge you to explore it even if you don’t live in Los Angeles because it’s full of information on language learning and the developing mind and stories of the bilingual education dilemma some immigrant families face.

If you do live in the Los Angeles area, then you must dig in and bookmark this site. There are profiles on the following schools and programs:

1. Academia Semillas del Pueblo

2. East Rio Vista YMCA

3. El Marino Language School

4. Bell Tower Trilingual School

5. Ceci’s Home Daycare

6. Long Beach New City School

7. Los Angeles Leadership Academy

8. Franklin Magnet School

Courtesy of 89.3 KPCC, a picture of my daughter hugging me after I finished reading a book in Spanish to her classroom at Franklin Language Magnet.

KPCC’s site also includes a comprehensive map of the state’s more than 300 bilingual schools that you can search by city and language of choice. This was so needed and I’m thankful for it! Check out the map here.

To culminate this fantastic coverage on bilingual education, on Saturday, January 26th, I will join KPCC’s Early Childhood Development correspondent Deepa Fernandes for “Should Kids’ Classrooms Be English-Only?”, a conversation about those and other questions surrounding bilingual education in Southern California.  A panel of professional- and parent guests will kick off this audience-inclusive discussion to be held at Los Angeles Leadership Primary Academy in Lincoln Heights. I would love to see many of you there. If you’re in the area and would like to join us, please RSVP here and/or help us spread the word.

¿Puedes contar de 20 a 1 y escribir tu nombre a la vez? ¡Inténtalo!

With the days getting colder in parts of the country, some of us are having to spend more time indoors. Inténtalo is a silly indoor game to keep kids laughing, moving and thinking in Spanish.

The activity uses a homemade spinner with actions. Spin the spinner twice and then try to do the two actions at the same time. You can adapt the actions for younger children and add harder ones for older kids. The game is simple y muy divertido!

Click here for a printable spinner and instructions on putting it together.

These are the actions on the spinner:
Frotarte la panza – Rub your tummy
Escribir tu nombre – Write your name (Little ones can just color.)
Tocar tus pies – Touch your toes
Hacer rebotar una pelota – Bounce a ball (Little ones can throw a ball.)
Brincar en tu lugar en un solo pie – Hop on one foot (Little ones can jump with both feet.)
Contar de 20 hasta 1 – Count backwards from 20 to 1 (Little ones can count up.)
Darte palmaditas en la cabeza – Pat your head
Dar vueltas – Spin around

Like most games, Inténtalo can be a good language activity. Just be sure to reinforce the actions your child is doing with lots of Spanish: Estás tocando los pies. Ahora escribe tu nombre. ¡Lo hiciste!
Describe what you are doing when it is your turn: Me estoy frotando la panza. Ahora voy a dar vueltas. ¡Fácil!
Also, use normal game vocabulary in Spanish as you play:
Te toca. - It’s your turn.
Me toca. - It’s my turn.
Dale vuelta a la ruleta. – Spin (the spinner).

Simple, fun activities like this one make speaking Spanish fun and help the winter fly by. ¡Te toca a ti!

Special thanks to Spanish Playground for providing this activity. Visit their site for more activities to teach Spanish to kids.

¡Feliz como un lombriz! That is how we all want our children to feel todo el tiempo. Of course, no one is happy all the time, and it is important for children to learn to understand and express different emotions. This simple craft activity is a sign to hang on a door. A child uses it to show how she is feeling. I call it a midemociones (emotion measure) and it helps children identify and express emotions in Spanish.

This activity can be adapted to different ages and language levels. The instructions below are for a midemociones with four emotions. Older children can make a whole circle and divide it into eight or more sections.

To make a midemociones:
- Trace a semicircle onto light cardboard.
- Cut pie-shaped pieces out of colored construction paper or card stock. You can make a pattern to trace by folding a paper semicircle in half and in half again.
- Write an emotion on each pie-shaped piece.
- Add a drawing or a picture from a magazine to help identify the emotion and clarify the language.
- Glue the colored pie-shaped pieces onto the cardboard.
- Cut a pointer shape out of card stock and attach it to the base with a paper fastener.

Your child should put the language that best helps her communicate on her midemociones. Spanish language learners might include the verb estar or sentirse: Estoy enojada. Estoy contenta. Me siento sola. This activity is also good practice with agreement for children learning Spanish; the adjectives are feminine for niñas and masculine for niños.

These are some of the emotions your child could include:
arrepentido/a – sorry
avergonzado/a – embarrassed
celoso/a – jealous
confundido/a – confused
contento/a – happy
decepcionado/a – disappointed
emocionado/a – excited
enojado/a – angry
estresado/a – stressed
frustrado/a – frustrated
nervioso/a – nervous
preocupado/a – worried
solo/a sentirse – lonely
triste – sad

This simple activity encourages children to use Spanish to talk about their feelings. You can use the words on the midemociones to help your child identify her emotions and to talk about how others are feeling. You can also identify the feelings of characters in books to practice naming emotions. Understanding emotions is an crucial part of child development. As you use these words, your child will not only be developing her Spanish language skills, she will be acquiring the important ability to identify and express her feelings.

Special thanks to Spanish Playground for providing this activity. Visit their site for more ideas for teaching Spanish to kids.